School leavers with a university entrance standard

Why This Is Important

A formal school qualification is a measure of the extent to which young adults have completed a basic prerequisite for higher education and training and many entry-level jobs.  An entrance qualification enables students to go directly into further tertiary study at degree level.

Educational qualifications are also linked to labour force status and incomes.  For example, in 2007, in New Zealand, wage and salary earners with a Bachelor degree or higher, on average, possess double the relative earning power of those with no qualification (OECD 2009).

Indicator

School leavers with a university entrance standard

Numerator: (Data Source: Ministry of Education: March Roll Returns)

The total number of school leavers who attained:

• 42-59 credits level 3 or above for NCEA or other National Certificate at Level 3 with University Entrance requirements; or
• Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) or overseas award (including International Baccalaureate) at Year 13; or
  
• University Entrance; or
  
• National Certificate Level 3; or
  
• University Bursary (A or B); or
  
• NZ Scholarship or National Certificate Level 4,
  

as at the time they left school in a given school year.
 

Denominator: (Data Source: Ministry of Education: March Roll Returns)

The total number of school leavers in a given school year.
 

Interpretation Issues

NCEA is part of the National Qualifications Framework and has replaced School Certificate, Sixth Form Certificate and University Entrance/ University Bursaries qualifications. In 2002 all schools implemented NCEA Level 1, replacing School Certificate. In 2003 NCEA Level 2 was rolled out, however, schools were still able to offer a transitional Sixth Form Certificate Programme. From 2004, Level 3 NCEA replaced Higher School Certificate and University Entrance/University Bursaries. In 2004 a new Level 4 qualification, New Zealand Scholarship, was also offered.

In 2005 and 2006, there was no category to identify those attaining 42-59 credits at Level 3 or above with University Entrance requirements on the aggregated school leavers datasets. Rather, all leavers with 30-59 credits at Level 3 or above were grouped together.

In 2005, in order to estimate the number of leavers gaining 42-59 credits at Level 3 or above with University Entrance requirements, results for Year 13-Year 15 candidates from the 2005 National Qualifications Framework data have been used. The proportion of Year 13-Year 15 candidates gaining 42-59 credits at Level 3 or above with University Entrance, for each school, ethnic group and gender, has been applied to the corresponding set of leavers with 30-59 credits at Level 3 or above, by school, ethnic group and gender.

In 2006, a file containing individual record data on school leavers was provided by most schools.  To estimate the number of leavers gaining 42-59 credits at Level 3 or above with University Entrance requirements, the proportions of students with 30+ Level 3     credits or above with University Entrance, for each school, ethnic group and gender from the individual leavers data, has been applied to the corresponding set of leavers with 30-59 credits at Level 3 or above, by school, ethnic group and gender from the aggregated leavers data.  For schools with no individual record data, have used decile average proportions by ethnic group and gender.

As a result of the above manipulation it is possible to get non-integer values for numbers of leavers with a University Entrance standard in 2005 and 2006.

Prioritisation of ethnicity is when people are allocated to one of the ethnicities they have recorded they affiliate with.  This usually occurs when data are collected manually and/or aggregate data returns are collected centrally. This allocation is performed using a predetermined order of ethnic groups. For this indicator ethnicity is prioritised in the order of Māori, Pasifika, Asian, Middle Eastern/Latin American/African, other groups except European/Pākehā, and European/Pākehā.

For this indicator European/Pākehā refers to people who affiliate as New Zealand European, Other European or European (not further defined).  For example, this includes and is not limited to people who consider themselves as Australian (excluding Australian Aborigines), British and Irish, American, Spanish, and Ukrainian.